Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Moscow Drafting Far Fewer Daghestanis than It Did a Decade Ago

Paul
Goble

Staunton, October 27 – Despite Moscow’s
military buildup and demographic trends which mean the draft pool in Daghestan
is far larger than in Russian regions, the Russian government is drafting fewer
than a fifth as many young men from that North Caucasus republic than it did a
decade ago.

In fact, according to a report by
Amina Murtuzova on the “Kavkazskaya politika” portal today, Russia is drafting
only 2800 Daghestanis for all of 2015, far below the 15,000 to 20,000 it took prior
to 2008 and only seven percent of the more than 40,000 men of draft age there (kavpolit.com/articles/dagestan_sluzhit_by_rady_no_ne_vse-20903/).

This
may represent a victory for Russian commanders who don’t want North Caucasians
in their units. But it creates problems both in the North Caucasus and
elsewhere. In the region, many want to be drafted because a military “ticket”
is needed for many jobs; and elsewhere, low draft numbers in the Caucasus mean disproportionately
more ethnic Russians will have to serve.

Last
spring, Murtuzova says, Moscow drafted 1300 Daghestanis; this fall, it is
taking 1500, for a total of 2800. In 2014, 2800 were drafted. In 2012, the
figure was 2379; in 2010, 7900; but “before 2008, between 15,000 and 20,000 men
were called from Daghestan each year.”

Not only are fewer being drafted,
but the share of the draft pool called to service has declined as well, from almost
half of the available figure to only seven percent, something that allows the
republic military commissariat to be far more selective, turning down many who
want to serve, and also far more willing to grant deferments or exemptions
altogether.

Many young Daghestanis want to serve
so that they will be able to get jobs, especially outside of Daghestan, or get
into higher educational institutions. Consequently, some of them turn up year
after year in the hopes of being drafted but are turned down for one reason or
another.

But Murtuzova says, it is also true
that many young men in Daghestan no interest in serving in the Russian army,
seeing it as a waste of time especially as they might be sent for service in
construction battalions – as was true of many non-Russians in Soviet times –
rather than in units where they would receive more useful training.

Such anti-military attitudes are
reinforced, the Kavkazskaya politika journalist says, by the experiences many
have when they show up for medical checks prior to the draft. It is all too
obvious that this process is corrupt with some young men getting in who shouldn’t
and others being denied the chance to serve even though they want to.

Yavnuz Dzhambalayev, who oversees
the draft at the republic military commissariat, tells Murtuzova that the military
takes older men first and gives preference to those who have higher educations.
And because there are so many in the draft pool, it generally excludes those
who don’t want to serve or who are already employed.